Heading one of the nation's strongest economies, the Berejiklian Government spruiked its economic credentials in the lead up to the 2019 NSW election. NSW Treasurer Dominic Perrottet took credit for the state's solid employment figures and claimed: "It was only 10 years ago, under Labor, the unemployment rate was 5.7 per cent. Today, 3.9 per cent." Is he correct? Mr Perrottet's claim amounts to cherrypicking. His figures are accurate, but they do not fairly represent Labor's record on jobs. Experts told RMIT ABC Fact Check that comparing unemployment rates for two individual months 10 years apart was meaningless, and suggested longer-term averages would provide a better, albeit crude, yardstick. Averaged over two terms per party, the jobless rate under the most recent Labor and Coalition governments was the same, at 5.2 per cent. Also, in referring to Labor's record, Mr Perrottet chose a rate from the middle of the global financial crisis when unemployment spiked nationally. Experts said that it was unfair to ignore economic shocks beyond the control of state governments and that, while the Coalition had created jobs through its infrastructure program, no government shouldered sole responsibility for the unemployment rate.
Verdict: Cherrypicking